Almost three years ago, Meriden, Conn.-based clothing retailer Bob's Stores decided to implement a customer loyalty program. At the time, Synergy Printing provided the 34-chain store with commercial printing and direct mail. But Bob's initiated the loyalty program with another vendor--that is, until Emmons indicated his firm could provide the cards and accompanying documents.
Bob's Stores began a 2-tiered loyalty program based on a point system. All customers received a 24 mil, matte-finish introductory member card that store cashiers swiped when customers made purchases. When they spent a certain amount of money at the store, customers received points. Bob's also ran promotions: During select times, shoppers received double points on all clothing purchases or extra points on specific purchases. When a customer accumulated 300 points, he or she received a $10 plastic gift card. He or she also received a 30 mil, laminated loyalty card and three key tag loyalty cards to replace the introductory member card.
Synergy Printing was central to the operation. The distributorship provided all of the loyalty program components, including application forms, matte and plastic cards, and letters and envelopes for mailings. Emmons partnered with a mailhouse that handled fulfillment. Bob's Stores submitted weekly electronic files to the distributorship with names and addresses of new and upgraded loyalty program members, and the mailhouse sent the appropriate letters and cards to the customers.
Room for Creative Suggestions
To better serve Bob's Stores, Emmons worked on a "new and improved" product. With his assistance, the client tallied all costs for the program--what it cost to provide introductory cards, process weekly files, pull necessary upgraded cards and materials from the warehouse, personalize cards with customer ID numbers, and affix cards to outgoing letters, insert the letters into envelopes and mail them. Together, they determined Bob's Stores could save time and money by utilizing one card--the 30 mil card--for all loyalty program members.
Bob's Stores revamped its loyalty program in January. The program remains 2-tiered, with customers who have accumulated 300 points receiving additional perks from the store. As Emmons suggested, all members received the 30 mil plastic card. Bob's Stores recently ordered 1 million cards. It mailed 400,000 to existing loyalty program members in the first tier to replace their matte cards. The remaining 600,000 cards were sent to stores that then issued them to customers for automatic enrollment in the program.
Suggesting new products can encroach upon distributors' business: Synergy Printing lost the mailing operation for Bob's Stores' loyalty program (the distributorship still provides the improved cards). But creative ideas often yield loyal customers and more business. And most distributors believe they have an ethical obligation to offer customers the best products for their needs.
"As with any complex sale, you must understand--and meet--the customer's exact requirements, not sell a product that fits your capabilities," says Jack Schachtel, president of CTP Solutions, based in Agoura Hills, Calif. The distributorship sells 200,000 membership cards annually to a union. Previously, the paper cards were part of a self-mailer, but the union had problems with carbon smearing on the cards. CTP Solutions suggested the client switch to an InfoSeal® application for a cleaner, more professional-looking document.
The Power of Plastics
Selling plastic products presents opportunities for fulfillment,
mailing and more.
BY SUSAN KEEN FLYNN
Clothing retailer Bob's Stores previously ordered these
2-color letters with affixed 30 mil cards and key tag sets for its customer loyalty program from distributorship Synergy Printing, Topsfield, Mass. The letters were inserted into envelopes and mailed weekly to customers who purchased a certain amount of merchandise from the retailer. The weekly mailings were time-consuming and costly.
Howie Emmons, owner of Synergy Printing, suggested the customer switch to an automatic enrollment program in which all customers would receive 30 mil cards when they signed up for the loyalty program. Bob's Stores ordered 600,000 card and key tag sets for its 34 stores, plus an additional 400,000 cards to send to current loyalty program members who hadn't reached top-customer status. The 4-color letters and 2-color card and key tag sets shown here were mailed to those customers.
Synergy Printing, Topsfield, Mass., provides these 30 mil gift cards to a specialty home goods retailer with 18 locations. The distributorship supplies six lots of the 4-color cards: a non-denominational card; ones with $25, $50 and $100 values; and special cards with "Happy Holidays" and "Congratulations" messages. In addition, Synergy Printing sells the retailer matching envelopes, including those displayed here, into which consumers place the gift cards.
Personalizing Plastic
Customization is a printing industry buzzword. Increasingly, card applications are demanding greater degrees of personalization with brands, logos, graphics and photography. These features enable greater cross-branding opportunities and more convenient service to end users. To cost-effectively print hundreds of millions of fully customized cards, many printers use high-speed digital color presses.
Personix, a unit of distributorship Fiserv Inc., manufactures, personalizes and mails more than 100 million plastic cards annually, and provides high-volume laser printing and mailing services for 6,000-plus clients nationwide. Fiserv operates production centers in Houston, Indianapolis and St. Paul, Minn.
In 2000, Personix launched eXpress Digital™ to complement its traditional card products. Using a Xeikon DCP/50D digital color press, the company customizes cards as well as the documents accompanying them. The digital press enables faster turnaround, more customization and greater opportunities for brand enhancement.
"Customized communication is of vital importance in many industries today," says Hal Cline, vice president of card sales at Personix. "A good application example is the health care industry. A company may purchase health coverage for all of its employees from a large health care provider. With our system, we can actually put the company's [full-color] logo on the card as well as the insurer's logo. That creates a strong relationship between the insurance company, the employer and the employee."
Traditionally, plastic card manufacturing and personalization are two offline processes: Personix' new system prints and personalizes in a single pass. Because the process is done in one step, integrated digital printing of cards and carriers cuts production costs and eliminates the need for inventories. Personix also relies on printing the front and back of the document at the same time to ensure that information won't be mismatched--a potentially disastrous situation with sensitive information such as social security or account numbers.
The Xeikon DCP/50D allows Personix to produce unique cards for each customer. Additionally, the digital color press can personalize 30 times the number of ID cards produced by a traditional card personalization machine hourly. (The Xeikon DCP/50D can print 18,000 personalized cards an hour, Cline says.) "These cards are printed in one step, only as they're needed--that adds to overall time savings," he says.
Digital printing also yields inventory savings for plastic card customers. Because each card is created on demand, storing large quantities of preprinted template cards isn't necessary. Personix previously needed to produce and/or store as many as 300 different types of template cards for one customer. It stocked hundreds of thousands of cards, partly to accommodate peak renewal orders. "We've completely eliminated the need for that inventory," Cline says. "This saves money, speeds up production and offers our customers a better product."
To print the cards and carriers, Personix uses a 10 mil Teslin® substrate, which ultimately is sandwiched between two 5 mil laminates. The Xeikon DCP/50D prints both the cards and carriers on both sides of the substrate in one pass. The carriers then are laminated and cut into 81ˇ2 x 33ˇ4-inch mailers and are ready to be stuffed into envelopes and mailed. The cards are die cut, but remain attached to the carriers. Recipients remove the finished cards from carriers.
This information originally appeared in DMIA's Business Printing Technologies Report e-newsletter.
The new, 10 mil plastic cards are affixed to the InfoSeal mailer, which serves as a receipt indicating union members have paid their dues. The 2-color cards include the union's name and logo on the front and membership regulations on the back. The mailer is personalized with an impact printer by the client, then C-folded and sealed on InfoSeal equipment, which CTP Solutions supplied.
Complexity Demands Teamwork
Plastic cards, particularly those wedded to mail campaigns, are complicated products to sell. Some vendors accept orders, then realize too late how complex they are. "There's a lot more involved than people initially think," Emmons says. That's good for Emmons, who has played the role of savior more than once when plastic orders have gone awry.
One of Synergy Printing's clients, specialty home goods retailer Kitchen Etc., transferred procurement of its gift cards from its marketing department to its purchasing department. "We sharpened our pencils," says Emmons, who anticipated that the purchasing department would aim to cut costs. Despite turning in what Emmons felt was a competitive bid, Synergy Printing lost the account--temporarily.
Emmons says Kitchen Etc.'s purchasing department incorrectly quoted the job with the winning vendor, asking for bids on 20 mil cards rather than 30 mil and one lot instead of six. (Six gift cards are available: one blank, three set denominations and two special-message cards.) So when Kitchen Etc. compared Synergy Printing's quote to that of its competitor, the retailer wasn't comparing apples to apples.
Once the new vendor landed the order, problems continued. Kitchen Etc.'s marketing department called Synergy Printing in a panic: Six weeks into the order, the holiday season was fast approaching and the retailer was still waiting for a proof. The distributorship scrambled and filled the order for 35,000 4-color cards. (See samples on page 30.) All in a day's work, Emmons says. "We bring an integrated solution to gift and loyalty cards, from design to production to implementation," he says.
But no distributorship is an island. Successful plastic card projects require the support of two main allies: manufacturers (and other vendors) and customers. "The key is aligning yourself with the right partners who offer quality products, timely delivery and competitive pricing," Emmons says. Synergy Printing worked with four partners on the revamped Bob's Stores account--a card manufacturer, an envelope manufacturer, a printer that provides the letters and a mailhouse.
Schachtel stresses the importance of client buy-in. The InfoSeal solution was new to his customer, who was skeptical at first. Schachtel performed a cost-benefit analysis, showing the union customer the labor savings and quality benefits. He also brought the customer numerous samples, so it could envision the product. "You have to lay it out so the customer can visually see how the quality will be improved," Schachtel says.
With the support of both manufacturers and customers, distributors say the potential for plastics is limitless. The niche includes a variety of products, from cards to point-of-purchase displays to signs. It also includes services such as fulfillment and mailing. "If I can provide the whole gamut of services, it's a lot better than providing just the plastics," Emmons says.
Savvy distributors can ask customers, "Will that be paper and plastics...and more?"
Susan Keen Flynn, a freelance writer based in Cleveland, is a frequent contributor to Print Solutions. Email us your comments at editors@printsolutionsmag.com.
Thanks to Arthur Blank & Co. Inc., Boston, and Teraco Inc., Midland, Texas, for assistance.
